Guadeloupe, savagery and émancipation : British comment of 1794-1796

Abstract

This article deals with British reaction to the first years of Victor Hugues' regime on Guadeloupe during the Revolutionary Wars, as expressed in official correspondence and certain influential publications of those times. The article points out how Hugues' implementation of the abolition of slavery on Guadeloupe — and his use of slave rebellion as a major weapon elsewhere — caused consternation in British circles, by occasioning fears that the whole colonial structure of the West Indies would be undermined. Within such a context, Hugues' regime became something «savage» and «diabolical» in British eyes. Moreover, consideration is given to the immédiate economic threat posed by Hugues' governorship. In that regard, it is pointed out that Hugues' extraordinary commerce raiding campaign of 1796-98 (vide : H.J.K. Jenkins, «The Heyday of French Privateering from Guadeloupe, 1796-98», The Mariner's Mirror, 64, 1978, p. 245-250) came as something of a relief to the British, in that it marked a return to a more familiar (though still very damaging) style of warfare.